Detrusor Activity Recovery in Acute Traumatic Spinal Cord Injuries

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The detrusor activity in the acute phase of the spinal cord injury changes with the development of the spinal shock. Spinal shock is a phase of areflexic phase after the spinal cord injury that is primarily influenced by the severity of the injury and the neurological level of injury. Detrusor activity shows areflexic in the spinal shock phase, followed by a return of detrusor activity at the end of the spinal shock. There was no recent study to provide evidence of an appropriate time to assess detrusor muscle activity through urodynamic studies. There were only a few limited studies on detrusor activity following spinal cord injury from 1960 to 1970. However, when the urodynamic study should be performed is still controversial. Knowing the patterns of detrusor activity following spinal cord injuries is critical to determining the appropriate timing for intermittent catheterization, which is the standard emptying method of choice. If clinicians fail to understand true detrusor activity as early as possible, the patient will suffer from unnecessary indwelling catheter voiding, resulting in impaired quality of life in the acute phase.